Course content

Experts in Teamwork is a course in which students apply their academic competence in interdisciplinary project work to learn cooperative skills that can be transferred to the workplace. Relevant issues from society and working life form the basis for the project work, and the student teams should work together with external partners. The student team must adapt the project that the team members choose, to suit their combined competence and the theme of the village. For further information, see www.ntnu.edu/eit and www.ntnu.edu/eit/course-description

Learning outcome

In Experts in Teamwork, the student will learn to communicate and cooperate in a way that enables him or her to contribute to comprehensive solutions, job satisfaction and learning in interdisciplinary project work later in their professional life. This means that: -The student will gain insight into how his or her behaviour and attitude can influence teamwork. -The student is to be able to see his or her own cooperation from a metaperspective in order to understand how they communicate, plan, decide, solve tasks, handle disagreement and relate to professional and personal differences. -The student is to be able to sustain and strengthen initiatives that stimulate cooperation or change patterns of behaviour where necessary. -The student is to develop a conceptual framework and be able to apply basic group theory to describe specific cooperative situations. -The student is to develop a new perspective on their academic competence by communicating and applying it. -The student is to be able to cooperate with people from other subject areas to take advantage of interdisciplinary expertise.

Learning methods and activities

The learning method in EiT is experience-based. Students develop teamwork skills by reflecting on and learning from specific cooperative situations in their project work. Reflections are shared by the team and are stimulated by facilitation, reflection writings, interaction exercises, and feedback to each other. Students in EiT are divided into villages of up to 30 students, and each village is divided into interdisciplinary teams of five to six students. The village language is either English or Norwegian. Each village is headed by a professor, called the village supervisor. In addition, two learning assistants in each village facilitate the student teams. Each village has a broad overall academic theme related to societal issues or challenges from working life. This theme forms the basis for the student team's project work. The village may have external partners that represent the theme, and that may be advisers and recipients of the students' work. The village themes are presented on the EiT website, and the desired combination of academic competencies in the villages is specified as a guide to help students choose a village. Students submit their preferences for five villages in order of priority through StudentWeb by 1 November. Students are allocated to the villages on the basis of their preferences, the village's need for competence in various disciplines, and the number of places in the village. Learning activities Teaching consists of both teacher- and student-led activities. At the beginning, activities are arranged to introduce the students to each other. The village theme is presented to the students, and each student team draws up a cooperation agreement. The student team prepares a proposal for their project based on the village theme and the individual student's academic competence and interests. After approval by the village supervisor, the student team works with the project throughout the semester or the intensive period. The student team is responsible for following up the cooperation agreement and for revising it if necessary. The student team is facilitated while the members work. Facilitation involves being observed and receiving feedback on the interaction in the team. Students write both personal reflections and team reflections. Reflections initiated by facilitation and writing of reflections provide the basis for understanding how the individual member's actions influence the teamwork. The team must initiate actions that increase its awareness of its teamwork, and take action to improve the cooperation if necessary. What is meant by 'actions' is defined in the assessment criteria. The effect of the actions must be evaluated. Compulsory assignments - Attendance is mandatory. - Preparation of a cooperation agreement between the members of the student team during the first two village days. - Oral presentation of the project and a dialogue about the team process dialogue in the student team when the teaching ends. The compulsory activities must be approved by the village supervisor before the final reports are submitted for assessment. It is a prerequisite that the entire student team participates. Final reports These consist of a project report and a team process report by the students. The project report must describe the student team's problem formulation and the result of the project work. The team process report must describe the cooperation in the team and what each individual has experienced and learned through team-based reflections on relevant situations from the project teamwork. Expectations for the student team's work and the assessment criteria are described in the Experts in Teamwork guide for students. Form of assessment The final project report and process report by the student team are assessed in relation to the grading scale A–F. The team receives one common grade. The project report and the process report are each worth 50% of the final grade. Attendance EiT is taught in the spring semester: •Semester-based villages: Attendance each Wednesday throughout the semester (time: 08:00-16:00)

Compulsory assignments

• Attended all course days
• Oral presentation
• Preparation of a cooperation agreement

Required previous knowledge

EiT is normally compulsory in all programmes of study at second-degree level at NTNU. The programme descriptions for the programmes of study provide information about the stage in the programme at which EiT is to be completed and whether EiT can be taken as an intensive or semester-based course. Other students may apply for admission to EiT, but must be qualified for admission to a master's programme in order to participate. Students must be able to speak the village language (Norwegian or English).

Course materials

The Experts in Teamwork guide for students, available at the EIT website EiT compendium